Assessing Readiness for Islamic Banking: A Strategic Framework

The Islamic Banking Readiness Assessment is designed to align business and IT leaders within financial service organizations on how to effectively offer ethical and Sharia-compliant solutions via AWS services and infrastructure. This assessment will result in a tailored report with a roadmap and recommendations on how to optimally meet the ethical banking needs of your customers and position your technology organization to deliver Islamic banking products.

In today's ecosystem-driven finance landscape, businesses and IT leaders can significantly enhance their offerings and time to market by leveraging mature Sharia-compliant FinTech’s, which provide ethical, inclusive, and innovative financial solutions for end customers. The integration of such Islamic banking products and services requires an understanding of unique ethical and regulatory requirements. The assessment will ensure your organization is not missing out by enabling the alignment of your business, product and technology strategies to support the required changes:

• Drive Revenue: Reach new customer segments and provide access to Islamic banking products that lead to consistent revenue streams.

• Partnership Effectiveness and Value Exchange: Identify strategic partners willing to collaborate in the Islamic banking ecosystem (e.g. Sharia compliant capital provision, core banking or treasury).

• Technology Stack Optimization: Ensure your technology stack is architected to support Islamic banking offerings.

Developing an effective Islamic banking offering requires consideration of the following:

• Understanding Sharia compliant technology requirements and their implications for your organization.

• Developing a future-proof architecture to support your Islamic banking vision.

• Prioritizing transparency and customer trust.

• Ensuring regulatory compliance with Islamic banking standards.

• Identifying partners within a partner management framework.

• Cultivating agility and adapting to the evolving financial services landscape.

After a series of workshops, you will receive a final report summarizing recommendations on your strategic options, associated impacts, risks, and mitigating actions. The report will enable you to understand how to address these challenges & opportunities:

• Leadership Consensus: Align business and IT stakeholders on the vision for Islamic banking products.

• Technology Strategy: Tailor your approach to your business objectives and regulatory environment.

• Implementation Roadmap: A tailored plan to engage with the Islamic banking ecosystem Partner and product roadmap.

• Skills and Capabilities Assessment: Understand the skills required to build an effective Islamic banking offering.

• AWS Tools and Services: Define the AWS tools and services required to support and enable Islamic banking products.

The readiness assessment will be conducted through a combination of data, our own experience, research, and industry reports, as well as virtual workshops attended by your key business and IT leaders:

Workshop 1 - Understanding Your Vision and Goals

• Assess your company’s vision and goals for Islamic banking.

• Analyze competitive differentiation, priority markets, and products.

Workshop 2 - Ecosystem Engagement and Technology Strategy

• Analyze your plans for ecosystem engagement and current architecture landscape.

• Evaluate build vs. buy decisions for Islamic banking solutions.

Workshop 3 - Identifying Obstacles and IT Landscape Impact

• Discuss key obstacles preventing your organization from achieving its vision for Islamic banking.

• Review the associated impact on your IT landscape.

• Co-create high-level estimate for a product roadmap underpinned by technology change

Workshop 4 – Executive Presentation on Recommendations and Next Steps

• Review product and technology recommendations based on the analysis.

• AWS cloud infrastructure strategy and proposed architecture.

• High-level roadmap for next steps and prioritised solutions for further evaluation.

The Islamic Banking Readiness Assessment will position your organization to take advantage of future opportunities as they arise, ensuring you remain a leader in the competitive financial services sector while meeting your customers’ ethical banking needs.